What's life like in other countries at the moment?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

I seem to recall tales of Lockdown in France, Spain, Italy and even Sweden taking up a lot of news columns in the spring.

But there seems to be very little now. Obviously there's a lot to fill the papers with currently, so maybe that's the reason?

If you're not in The UK, how's life for you?

[MarshaBradyo]

@Jroseforever

There really isn’t much difference between how every COuntry has each responded. Maybe a difference in timing but only days or weeks difference. Small differences in the time bars shut etc

But these little tweaks I suspect are insignificant in the overall picture.

Likewise, populations have responded similarly. Differences being marginal.

It’s about population density. That lies at the root of the spread of a pandemic.

Agree restrictions on initial lockdown were almost the same in early lockdown in West.

The biggest factor is timing on the curve. NZ were able to point to rest of world in late March and do it roughly at same time but still only have 105 cases.

[Mobydick2020]

Portugal
Cases rising again in Lisbon and the North, Algarve too but it’s never been too bad.
We entered another ‘State of emergency’ last week, certain areas of the country with higher cases have restrictions such as not going out on the roads between 11pm-6am and not after 1pm on weekends. Masks still in shops etc and has been made mandatory in crowded places, so they said it’s outdoors but I don’t see many people with masks, it’s a mix of those who feel they should and those who don’t. People are sensible though and keep a fair distance in general and follow the washing hands in shops and so on.
Restaurants open still for now, so we haven’t returned to a full lockdown (yet) there’s always rumours, the president stated we won’t as the country is poorer than the uk and some countries and simply wouldn’t survive financially.
Still no festivals, large gatherings and so on, although they did have the huge motor racing even here a couple of weeks ago! 🤷🏻‍♀️

[MarshaBradyo]

Also agree Japan is really the only anomaly and not sure why

Everywhere else the virus acted as expected as did population even despite leaders. We were starting to change behaviour before lockdown.

[Athrawes]

NZ here. Yes we are continuing pretty much as normal BUT we are about to hit our second summer of no tourists, no international students, two of our biggest earners. So, whilst not complaining about our marvelous and re-elected, government, we are stuffed. And my partner still can't get back into the country, after 8 months being away. So that's pretty shit.

[Malin52]

@eaglejulesk

Ha ha! Agree. Have you seen a Kiwi queuing? It's a train wreck!

Not in this part of the country it's not - queuing went brilliantly here!

I mean in general! . Everyone was great during lockdown. In general the queuing in Auckland is appalling! I have to queue for public transport and the inching past, the standing next to you, scurrying ahead at the slightest gap, if you aren't super quick of the mark and close a 10 cm gap there'll be 19 people ahead of you! It hrrifies me!

My point was Kiwis (Aucklanders) seem to have a healthy disrespect for rules but lockdown was complied with due to clear decisions comms from the govt.

[Literallynoidea]

Agree, I am not impressed by NZ's behaviour at all. Shutting the door and waiting to be rescued is not to me the mark of a great nation.

[Frazzled2207]

Having lived in Japan myself where I know the mask wearing is totally normal If for example you have a cold, I imagine there would have been universal mask wearing at a very early stage with no quibble. Also some experience of dealing with these things eg SARS.

Otoh staying at home would have been massively impractical due to tiny overcrowded housing. Wfh also rarely a “thing”. Fascinating how it managed to avoid what we have had.

[eaglejulesk]

@Malin52 - oh Aucklanders, a different race to the rest of us

[ConfusedcomMum]

Well done to New Zealand, much respect and admiration from a Brit (no grudges here ).

[eaglejulesk]

Agree, I am not impressed by NZ's behaviour at all. Shutting the door and waiting to be rescued is not to me the mark of a great nation.

And the way the government of the UK has treated its citizens is the mark of a great nation

Incidentally, your username is perfect for you!

[DarkMutterings]

néih hóu from Hong Kong, where we are also up there in terms of population density. 3rd or 4th I believe. Absolutely density is a factor but I think rule following and quarantine are very significant too.

HOng Kong closed its borders pretty quick and there is a strict (and monitored) 14 day quarantine for all arrivals then high risk countries like the UK only in designated hotels. Of course many people don't like this - especially expats or people with families abroad for work or study and it pretty much killed off the 'weekend break' tourism trade which is huge here. But there are incredibly low numbers, and even lower community transmission numbers.

I hate to say it but the UK and Ireland are islands, they could have done a lot of this. They could have shut borders, they could of foregone summer holidays, they could have mandated quarantines.

Equally after SARS pandemic which was only 2003 so well within memory for many people, mask wearing, social distancing (well as much as you can in such a dense city!) temperature checks and stepped up hygiene kicked in overnight and are pretty universal. As a culture Hong Kongers tend to be compliant so if you see someone with out a mask, the assumption is they have a genuine issue, not just chancing it so people don't seem to get as aggrieved.

Net result after a long school closure and WFH over the spring (which in tiny flats of multi generations was really really painful), kids are back at schools, shops, restaurants and bars opened with some restrictions but it's ok. Funnily enough it was the beaches that were amongst the last thing to open - mainly because in the summer they were rammed as a result of people living in tiny apartments and needing to get out at weekends. We still can't really travel and that's so challenging especially on families but day to day it's ok.

[TheHoneyFactory]

@Literallynoidea

Agree, I am not impressed by NZ's behaviour at all. Shutting the door and waiting to be rescued is not to me the mark of a great nation.

yeah saving their own citizens lives... what utter bastards!!!!


literally no idea...

[IrmaFayLear]

Northern Italy in almost full lockdown. Have to have a printed piece of paper to authorise going out.

Schools open, but teachers working from home and teaching via zoom - with a helper present in the classroom to keep order.

Apparently the local hotlines are buzzing with people eager to report neighbours for transgressions.

[Bwlch]

After a brief lockdown earlier in the year, we were very quickly back to normal.

I received an invitation this morning to a regular Christmas friends/neighbours house party in WA. The trouble is, we can't get there.

[IrishMamaMia]

I'm also intrigued by how Japan have avoided carnage. I get the impression anecdotally that people in Japan have small social networks and were already early adopters of video calls etc so while this helped I hope we do find out what's made them so successful.
Covid has been intriguing on a cultural level, looking around at response different places. While the first wave was disastrous in the UK, I'm impressed at how many people have pulled together to help others. I feel very close to my neighbours these days.

[ThatDamnScientist]

There are some real sour grape/bitter people on this thread.

[ConfusedcomMum]

I also think many of us Europeans have been sheltered from natural disasters (e.g. a PP mentioning wildfires in Australia). In the Far East, they had their own serious epidemics in recent history so the mindset was different.
The Dominic Cummins saga destroyed a lot of goodwill amongst the public and the Government messages have not been clear. It also doesn't help that much of the current cabinet are made up of personalities who thrive on a divisive rhetoric in order to gain supporters so have tried to do the same with covid, blaming different groups of people for the spread. Nations who have such leaders, ones who have broken down the community spirit have fared much worse in this pandemic and it really shows.

[Malin52]

@Literallynoidea

Agree, I am not impressed by NZ's behaviour at all. Shutting the door and waiting to be rescued is not to me the mark of a great nation.

Waiting to be rescued couldn't be further from the truth. Read my post. Our economy is doing fine. Our government focused on saving lives and getting us back to freedom and normality ASAP. NZ is a key part of the search for a vaccine.

Lies, cronyism, incompetence, inconsistency and allowing 50,000 citizens to die is not the mark of a great nation to me.

[MarshaBradyo]

NZ is a key part of the search for a vaccine.

In what way? Not being antsy but interested.

[ThatDamnScientist]

I hate to say it but the UK and Ireland are islands, they could have done a lot of this. They could have shut borders, they could of foregone summer holidays, they could have mandated quarantines.

Yes to this, then you will get people saying we can't shut our borders as we need to import goods. But, any NZers correct me if I'm wrong, NZ still allowed food etc imports in so it really is a lame excuse for not shutting the borders!

[MarshaBradyo]

I know people like to post the bad things re U.K. but vaccine and treatment development here has been exemplary. And will save millions of lives (although need to wait for results fingers crossed).

[FatimaMunchy]

Dark mutterings there seems to be a perception that there is 100% compliance with mask wearing in Hong Kong with no exemptions.
Acquaintences of ours who have a home in England and live most of their time in Hong Kong were allowed to quarantine in their apartment on return from the UK, but had a prison style tag, so could not go outside the front door.

[TheKeatingFive]

NZ is fairly close to being self sufficient when it comes to food (I think). The U.K. imports more food than it produces. The UK is also an international business hub in a way that NZ isn’t. It also shares an open border with ROI, so unless they did the same, it would have worked.

I don’t think closing borders was a feasible strategy.

[Expat2]

Umm don’t forget the role NZ plays in the Pacific. I’m guessing you don’t know much about this side of the world? NZ is playing a critical role in protecting a number of Pacific Island nations in shutting their borders. (And no, I’m not from NZ and don’t live there)

[DarkMutterings]

Same with HK, when I say 'shut' there have been exemptions - we get a huge majority of our food and resources imported.

Some of the exemptions were a mess so some Chinese business people came through, then there was a cluster linked back to seamen who were changing shifts on cargo boats. But by and large they shut those holes down or imposed news rules to manage them.

The HK govt is just about to open more broadly to Mainland - and now that will be interesting to see what happens with cases given the 'news' from China that they are practically virus free.

And then there will be an air bubble with Singapore is proposed soon, so bit by bit things open.